someone please help me!!!!!! ive been on so many of these its unbelievable but im so scared it is something serious, ive wa recently dianosed with anxiety and i have a phobia of dying but the syptoms im having are real. my head is in so much pain allover

Dear Madam, Welcome to AMD forum of doctors. Your constant worrying concern about any unknown diseases is understandable. But here I would like to assure you that the symptoms you are constantly experiencing are not at all life-threatening. If a person like you who constantly worry about your health and anything else you can think of, your anxiety can trouble your day to day life and eventually can lead to an illness known as generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). In addition, if you repeatedly go to a doctor complaining of wide span of physical symptoms like headaches, neck pain, dizziness or stomach problems, he/she may be alerted to the possibility of GAD. But I will reassure you here that doctor will try to diagnose your health problem from careful questioning and by ordering some tests to first rule out physical illness (such as meningitis, blood clot you are thinking). If the doctor doesn�t find anything then only he/she will declare that either you have nothing or facing the general anxiety disorder. And most importantly anxiety may be experienced as inner tension, irritability, increase heart beat, pain all around body parts, sweating and sometimes as a fear of death as real even without any physical illness. It is unknown that what is the main cause of GAD, but most of the psychologists believe that it is due to a lack of steadiness during childhood or any previous trauma/long time stress. When anxiety disorder is diagnosed by all the doctors then you can be referred to a psychologist for further assessment & advice here. Treatment may depend upon the severity of symptoms. The major thing that everyone agrees on is that the earlier treatment is given, the better your chances of recovering from the condition. Usually psychological & drug treatments are mainstay of treatment but cognitive behavior therapy is now regarded as the best treatment among them. Cognitive behavior therapy helps you in changing the way you think. If you are also lacking skills to solve problems, then training about how to cope up with the problems can provide you a greater feeling of controlling what is happening to you. Therefore, by this therapy you may be encouraged to face up your problems and difficulties. Other helpful techniques could be relaxation methods, breathing exercises and doing pleasurable activities that may help you in reducing the symptoms of anxiety. Physical exercise can also be helpful in addition to this. Besides, prescribing few anti-anxiety drugs may be surely helpful in decreasing the symptoms, if your doctor feels so. Hope this information proves helpful to you. Take Care & Stay Healthy!!!

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Sat 12, Dec 2009 09:51am

Dear Rachael, I can understand that you may feel embarrassed in repeatedly showing your same concern to the doctors and they are unable to find anything therefore they may also feel the same. Although the possibility of being misdiagnosed for any underlying disorder is not uncommon in general medical practices but this possibility in your case is almost rare as you have consulted a lot of other doctors of same stream. I can also understand that your condition is quite difficult to deal with since you are constantly experience the symptoms (such as muscle spasm) and no one is able to diagnose any physical illness. Since this is possible because if your health concern is severe anxiety you may feel those symptoms as in real. Therefore, please follow the recommendations of your counselor and what we have suggested to you. Hope this helps.

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Dr Bhupinder K, MD

Sat 12, Dec 2009 08:01am

Hello, Welcome to the AMD forum of doctors and we are really glad to help you out. Dr Anurag has explained the possibility of generalized anxiety disorder. Another possibility that you seem to suffer from medical perspective is known as Hypochondriasis. Hypochondriasis or (health phobia) is a psychiatric disorder in which the person worries a lot about having some serious illness. In this a physician or doctor rules out any serious underlying medical basis or disease and if there is any minor illness, then it is not serious enough to cause any mortality. Many people suffering from this disorder focus on a particular symptom as the catalyst of their worrying, such as gastro-intestinal problems, palpitations, or muscle fatigue. Cognitive Behavior Therapy is found helpful in relieving the intensity and frequency of troubling bodily symptoms. I will request you to please consult a psychiatrist/clinical psychologist as along with this behavior therapy you may need some drugs also to improve your symptoms. Please don�t worry, it�s a minor illness and I�m sure you�ll come out of it quite well. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care and please do keep us posted in case you have any additional doubts. Kind regards.

rachael

Sat 12, Dec 2009 08:31am

thanyou very much, my symptoms are really bad...i think deep deep deep down there is nothing wrong but there is another side to me that thinks i have an illness or my mind is telling my body you are dying then its constantly on my mind, i dont help my self much by looking on sites that say bad things but its like im addicted to them, its just why would i get this pain if there's nothing wrong, obviously the doctors havnt sent me for a scan coz i look perfectly normal/healthy to them but what if they miss diagnose me??? iam seeing a councellor at the moment but we just talk about stuff that has happened in the past, but i think what im going through now has nothing to do with that, i darnt go to the doctors again as they will get sick of seeing me :( i just want to know i have no life threatning diseases. the pain is going to my back too :( could this just be muscle spasms due to stress? Rachael

someone please help me!!!!!! ive been on so many of these its unbelievable but im so scared it is something serious, ive wa recently dianosed with anxiety and i have a phobia of dying but the syptoms im having are real. my head is in so much pain allover

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